Ethics

Great post over at Bow Tie Law’s Blog on one example of when a judge wasn’t hesitant to allow forensic examination of a party’s computer. Needless to say, the conduct of one of the one of the party’s most likely made this decision much easier for the judge (Note to party- don’t lie to a federal judge).

The lawyers covered are from across the country and the online vehicles of their self destruction vary from blogs to Facebook to commenting on online news stories. And it’s not just lawyers: Judges are getting caught as well. One of the examples involves, I’m sorry to say, an Assistant Public Defender from my home county of Winnebago, Illinois, who was posting about her clients and their cases in very free and open language. Or how about Chicago immigration lawyer Samir “Sam” Chowhan who advertised for an assistant on Carigslist that also included having sex with him as part of the job duties.

Law.com, in picking up a story from The BLT: Blog for Legal Times has a post regarding District Judge Reggie Walton’s written opinion of his October 29, 2009 decision that the FTC’s Red Flag Rules did not apply to lawyers and their clients.

Whether we want to admit it or not, cloud computing is making an impact on the way we practice law as well as the way our clients approach computing and information storage. Lawyers need to have a t least a basic understanding of the benefits and potential pitfalls that this new technology will impose.

My friend, Dan Pinnington (director of practicePRO), article Legal malpractice risks change in tough times (But the best risk management strategies donâ€™t) was recently made available to a wider audience and is worth reading. Dan provides sage advice and even though he is in Canada and this was originally aimed at Canadian lawyers, it applies to those of us here in the U.S.A.

DISCLAIMER: The posts and opinions expressed on Compujurist are the peronsal opinions and viewpoints of Nerino J. Petro, Jr. or any guest author that posts on this blog. Any posts or commentary do not and are not inteneded to represent or be attributed to any organization, company, employer, or other person or entity but are the sole responsibility of the author. Modified from Newsweek - Powered by Wordpress